Watch: Shikhar Dhawan reveals the secret to slip catching

By Christopher Paul

Image credit @Twitter

Over the years India has tried hard to perfect their technique of slip catching. Thought-out the recent few years team India has found it difficult to get a grove in the slip catching game, thus resulting in inconsistent catches. Many players have indeed shown a flair for slip catching in a few games, others haven’t been that effective.

Ahead of their 4th Test match at Southampton, Indian opener Shikar Dhawan has revealed a short video on how their fielding coach R. Sridhar has been helping players improve their slip catching skills. After the first two losses against their hosts, India made a huge and triumphant comeback during the 3rd test match at Trent Bridge. This match saw India win by 203 runs, not only that but catches also played a huge role in this outcome.

The Indian fielders put on a terrific show getting any catch that came their way. KL Rahul was the star of the show with a total of seven catches to his name. It has been known that coach Sridhar has been exploring new techniques to help the boys improve their slip catching game.

The video showed a new drill introduced by the coach during their practice session. This would help them improve their reaction time and get better at grabbing sudden catches.

The video showed that the drill consisted of an opaque board placed a bit over the ground between the catcher and the coach. The coach would throw balls that would go under the board and for the player to catch. The opaque board made it so that the player couldn’t see the trajectory of the ball and had to stay focused and predict that on their own.

India will be taking on England for their 4th Test match on Thursday, 30th August. Hoping to tilt the score to their side and leveling the scoreboard to 2-2 is the main aim for our boys.